In a usual production utilizing stop-motion animation, the producers determine the position of the animated three-dimensional object in each film frame usually by intuition. As it is nearly always impossible when producing stop motion animation to know, for example, precisely how much a figure's arm has moved in the last frame photographed and needs to move in the next, the producer must rely on his sixth sense to make the adjustment. This production method has a great disadvantage as the resulting movement of the three-dimensional figure or object in the final film produced looks slightly snappy or jerky, and lacks smoothness and realism. This jerkiness and lack of realism is present in virtually all films produced using stop-motion animation, even in films produced by those highly skilled in the art, and remains today the outstanding problem associated with stop-motion animation. The present invention is concerned with eliminating this problem.
Attempts have been made in the past to develop several techniques and inventions in order to eliminate such jerky movement and to impart instead greater realism to the production of stop motion animation. All such prior techniques, however, have inherent disadvantages, which will be discussed.
One prior approach, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,241,929 utilizes an arrangement of steps including first making a series of drawings and producing a film strip from the resultant drawing series, sequentially posing the object in conformity with the projected screen image that is behind the object, and finally, sequentially photographing the object in its posed positions for the production of a finished film. This prior method allowed the producers of the stop-motion animated film a degree of planning with regard to the object to be animated. However, the technique had a disadvantage in that at best one could only match the outline of the object to the projected image on the screen (in this technique's most precise form, one matches the object's shadow cast on the screen to the projected film image on the screen); it is thus impossible to determine the required location of those portions of the object within the object's outline. For example, in the case of a human-like doll seen walking in profile in a position in which its arm is within its torso's outline rather than extended from the torso, it would be impossible to determine the exact location of the arm in this posed position. Therefore, this technique lacks precision. Another technique in this patent calls for alignment of interior features by projecting the animation frame directly onto the puppet. Such a technique is imprecise because of the difficulty in determining the precise point at which a line begins and ends. In addition, all lines of a frame may not be projected on the unposed puppet, for example the succeeding frame may contain an extended arm with portions oriented considerable higher than the present position of the posed puppets arm. Furthermore, some of the projected lines may be out of focus on the three-dimensional puppet.
Another technique, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,358,530, utilized an alignment grid composed of a series of squares. This grid was in close proximity to the puppet or object to be animated in the usual stop-motion fashion. After posing the puppet in one position, one noted the positions of the arms, legs, etc., onto the grid, then utilized these grid notations for reference while posing the doll in the next position, and repeated this process throughout the film's production. The disadvantage of this prior technique is, firstly, that it does not allow extensive preplanning of the puppet's posed positions such as in the prior technique previously discussed, because one is noting positions only after they have been set. Secondly, the technique allows one to note only the positions of those portions of the body which are on the outline of the body, and not those within the torso. This approach results in the same problem which existed in the technique previously discussed: lack of precision.
Another prior art technique, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,599,624 made use of a similar type of alignment grid. Specifically, in this arrangement, two alignment grids were utilized to coordinate the positions of a puppet with a previously filmed sequence of a live actor (which is projected in close proximity to the puppet). The disadvantage of this system is that the movements of the puppets must be based on the movements of what the invention terms "live talent"--that is, the movement of humans or animals. This is limiting to the producer of stop-motion of imaginary creatures, such as dinosaurs or three-headed dragons, of which no previously filmed "live talent" exists. This is a severe disadvantage as stop-motion animation is very often utilized precisely because it is the only method known in which imaginary creatures can come to life. Also, in this method there is no precise visual superimposition of the object and live actor's respective positions, as a side-by-side comparison requires a subjective, thus approximate, positioning of the puppet.
Another prior art technique, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,970,379, attempted to impart greater realism to stop-motion animation by sequentially projecting (from above the stage) a film of predetermined indices onto the stage upon which the three-dimensional puppets or objects rest, sequentially posing the puppets or objects on the stage in conformity with the projected indices, and sequentially photographing the puppets or objects in their posed positions for the production of a finished film. The disadvantage of this scheme is that, while it made the smooth movement of the puppets or objects about the stage possible, it did not provide indices for the movement of animatable portions of the puppets' or objects' bodies, such as their arms or legs. The scheme only provided indices for the puppets' or objects' stage movement. As a result, a puppet may move about the stage fairly smoothly but still move its arms, legs, head, etc., in the slightly jerky and unrealistic fashion that is typical of stop-motion animation.
Yet another prior art technique, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,081,667, attempted to impart greater realism to puppet or doll-films in an especially ingenious way. Through the utilization of a scheme involving a camera, a projector, and a semi-transparent mirror, one was able to superimpose the position of the puppet that one was animating in the usual frame-by-frame fashion with the image of a living being (such as an actor) that is projected frame-by-frame from a previously photographed motion-picture film. The mirror was used to superimpose the 2 images from the object and the reference (guide) drawing to be recorded by a single camera. This prior approach no doubt made possible the production of more realistic puppet and doll-films, but the approach has the same severe disadvantage as previously noted with U.S. Pat. No. 2,599,624. As the movement of the puppet or doll is based upon the movement of what the inventor himself terms a "living creature" (the creature being previously photographed onto motion picture film), the invention does not make possible the realistic movement of puppets or dolls which are imaginary creatures, such as dinosaurs or dragons, as no living creature exists upon which one can base the movements. As was the case in the previously discussed technique, this approach severely limits the producer of the stop-motion animated film.
Finally, another prior art technique introduced by the present inventor and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,997, imparts greater realism to stop-motion. According to this method, one first makes a series of drawings of the object to be animated in various sequential positions; one then transfers the drawings to transparencies; the transparencies are then sequentially mounted onto a stationary indexing jig located between the three-dimensional object and the film camera; one then poses the object so that it conforms to the position depicted by the transparency; the transparency is then removed from the jig so that it isn't photographed by the film camera; and finally, the object is photographed in its posed position by the film camera on a stop frame basis (one of course repeats this series of steps until the sequence is completed).
While the above technique imparts greater realism, it still requires a number of steps to complete a film sequence. In addition, it may be difficult in certain circumstances to simultaneously focus the transparency and the three-dimensional object, particularly while looking through a relatively small motion picture camera viewfinder during the alignment process.
Film-making is a complex and difficult endeavor, and stop-motion is particularly difficult. Thus, a hitherto unsolved need exists for an improved stop-frame animation system.